How close is the Doomsday Clock to midnight in 2023?

As 2023 comes to a close many of us are thinking about what the New Year has in store, and according to the Doomsday Clock, it's nothing great.

At 90 seconds to midnight, the Doomsday Clock is the closest it's ever been to midnight.

The Doomsday Clock is set by members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is designed to show how close humanity is to global catastrophe caused by manmade technologies.

Prior to January this year, the previous record was 100 seconds to midnight for two years. The farther time from midnight was 17 minutes in 1991.

The 2023 Doomsday Clock is displayed before a live-streamed event with members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on January 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. This year the Doomsday Clock is set at ninety seconds to Midnight Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

When the clock was set to 90 seconds in January, the Bulletin's President Rachel Bronson said: "The time on the Doomsday Clock represents the judgement of leading science and security experts about the threat to human existence, with a focus on man-made threats."

In a press release, she added: "90 seconds to midnight is the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight, and it's a decision our experts do not take lightly. The US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the Clock."

Usually, January is when the Doomsday Clock is updated annually, so it's not too long until we'll know if there's something to look forward to 2024.

The Clock has previously gone backwards in the past, but current global conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the ever-growing threat of climate change, means it's unlikely to happen this time around.

If the Clock were to hit midnight it would mean "there's some sort of nuclear exchange or catastrophic climate change that's wiped out humanity. We never really want to get there and we won't know it when we do," said Bronson.

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